~~ Ghost’s building walls along the path ~~

“Bro, why dont you explain ey!”

The gold station wagon switched on, Chai Gang unable to bear it asked impatiently.
Su Mo who was lost in thought, paused for a moment before answering, “I suspect that what has happened to Tan Le, isn’t a simple kidnapping case… Oh. Maybe the mission has changed!”

Su Mo wasn’t very familiar with the Dreamland Paradise, however that didn’t hinder his ability to speculate.

“Five years, the timing is quite clever. If Tan Le were really to be killed by the kidnappers, then Tan Qing would naturally be unable to have him marry someone else, not to mention the older sister. So, according to the most logical development of events, whether we rescue him or not, Tan Le will definitely not be harmed.”

Tan Le will not be harmed. The so called mission to rescue Tan Le has not only become the less essential mission, but it has even gone to the extent that it is a useless, unimportant mission.

Although it’s his first time entering ‘Dreamland’s Paradise’, Su Mo knew not to believe such a powerful and mysterious App. This sort of large BUG was bound to appear.

“Then, was it by coincidence that it happened before Tan Qing got remarried?”

There was only one reason that Su Mo could think of and that was that: There was someone who wanted to sabotage this marriage.

There were still two things that were uncertain. The disordered timeline and the mother’s broken legs.

The older sister’s death was very tragic, the sentence, ‘The younger brother’s special present’ obviously contains a deeper meaning to it. Su Mo’s eyes shone with an indescribable light.
“The answer should be inside the diary.”

At that exact moment, Xiao Ya, who had been reading through the diary while they were driving suddenly called out. “Stop the car! Quickly stop the car!”

creak ~~~ squeek ~~~

The station wagon came to a stop. Chai Gang feeling flustered spoke, “Quickly tell us, after all this time what did you find?”

In the back seat, Xiao Ya was sitting, her face pale and her eyes open with terror. Her hands that were gripping the diary were also trembling.

“Give it to me!”

Mark snatched the diary. However, he had yet to even turn two pages before it was snatched away by Chai Gang who was sitting in the front.

“You….”

“You. What you? Your senior hasn’t even seen it yet, so how could it be your turn to see it?”

Just as he had finished saying that, the diary was snatched away again.

Chai Gang felt angry. Just as he was about to go off, he realised that the person that had snatched it away from him was actually Su Mo and he instantly shut himself up.

The magnanimous Su Mo had never been one to selfishly hoard information without sharing it. He would obviously understand the other people’s desires and read it out loud for them.

“16 July 1969: Before I went to bed Dad told me that in a few days an Auntie and younger brother will be entering our lives. I’m looking forward to it…

20 July 1969: I saw the Auntie and my younger brother in the morning. The Auntie was very gentle and my younger brother was so cute. I wonder when it is they will move here, I’m already so anxious that I can barely stand the wait….

15 September 1970: It has been a year since Auntie and Le Le moved here. It’s obviously been very joyful, but why do I always feel that there is something that’s not right? My younger brother that is always cheerful, seems to always be staring at me with a strange look in his eyes…

12 March 1971: Today is my younger brother’s birthday. Dad gave him an adorable puppy as a present and he was very excited. So excited that it made me feel it was a little weird…

2 December 1971: Last night I saw my younger brother come out of Auntie’s room, his hands were covered in blood. But, in the morning Auntie looked completely normal except that she was limping slightly while walking… Maybe it was a dream?

16 May 1972: Today is my birthday. My younger brother gave me a present. A beautiful pair of furry gloves. The fur feels very familiar, similar to the fur of the puppy that my Dad gave my little brother. But, didn’t the puppy run away around two months ago?

15 February 1973: The bell for the new year rang out, but I couldn’t shake off a shadow of suspicion that hangs over my mind; Yesterday evening my younger brother took me to an underground room. He is quite strong and unexpectedly tied me up, took out a box and inside it, it was filled with rats. He actually, actually… but, the next day after I had woken up, I found that I was lying on top of my bed. Then that was also… could it really be a nightmare?

15 May 1973: Demon, my younger brother is a demon!

….

15 May 1974: Help!!

16 May 1974: Dad died, Auntie died, now I…. am also dead.”

Su Mo’s voice was flat, without any fluctuations of emotions, however the content of the diary made everyone’s hair stand on end.

Mark who was only able to stay silent for a short amount of time stammered out, “That Tan Le couldn’t be a ghost right?”

Chai Gang gripped the steering wheel tightly as he struggled to articulated his sentance, “How is that possible? Must we still continue?”

“The demon’s cage has been opened, the key is grasped within Pandora’s hand…”

The wise Dai Xing Zhang was contemplating in a composed manner, “So, Tan Le is the demon? Then the older sister must be Pandora and our actual mission must be to look for the key?”

Besides there being calamity and disaster inside Pandora’s box, there is also the ‘seed of hope’ that was left by Athena. If the diary represents the calamities, then the ‘seed of hope’ must be….

“The photo!”

Xiao Ya hastily pulled out the photograph. And just as expected, on the photography there was other information visible!

Just as before, the boy was holding a lollipop in his mouth, but the plastic spade that was in his hands, had changed into a butcher’s knife and held in his othe hand was the head of the dog, dripping with blood!

“Fuck! Is there something wrong with this boy?”

Xiao Ya’s face showed a look of disgust. “Do we really need to save him?”

Everyone went silent.

Whether Tan Le was mentally ill wasn’t important, their objective was to complete the mission. However the events that were unfolding before them were really too weird, with how weird it is, who would dare still believe that this was just a simple ‘rescue’ mission.

Su Mo seemed to be lost in thought, then clearly realising something, his face changed slightly. Without the least bit of hesitation he spoke out, “Go back immediately!”

Without hesitation, Chai Gang immediately turned the car around and drove straight towards the small town.

The only thing is….

The more they drove, the futher off course they found themselves becoming. The village that they were all familiar with was nowhere to be seen. The only building that they could see was a strange abandoned residence.

“We aren’t going the wrong way, so why…”

Su Mo spoke coldly, “Turn around!”

Chai Gang turned around again. After half an hour the abandoned residence once more became visible. They had returned to their original position.

Mark gave a start and spoke as if in disbelief, “Ghost’s path?”^[1]Folklore that when walking alone and finding yourself getting lost, is like ghosts building a wall along a path to keep you going in the direction they want, inevitably getting lost.

On Su Mo’s face there was neither sadness nor happiness, he only lifted his head and looked towards the sky. He smiled coldly, “Since it has come to this, we should just fulfill their wishes!”

Without hesitation, Su Mo opened the car door and jumped out.

“Wait!”

Chai Gang, who was second to jump out of the car, barred the way for Su Mo. “Are we just going to enter like this? Don’t you want to wait a bit first and at the very least get a feel for the situation!”

At that moment the car suddenly died and the torch became the only source for light. Being in this place in the middle of nowhere, without any light caused everyone to feel an increasing sense of danger.

“Do we have to do it now? Why don’t we wait for dawn and then we go in?” Lu Lan Lan grabbed hold of Xiao Ya’s sleeve, her voice trembling.

Nobody acknowledged her statement, Su Mo smiled coldly, “It has been at least four hours since we left the village, yet the moon hasn’t shifted in the slightest.”

The moon?

Without having finished the mission, those that were in the constant state of trepidation hadn’t noticed that the light of dawn was nowhere in sight!

Although nobody else had noticed the change with the moon, everybody trusted that it was correct as Su Mo had pointed it out. Now that they knew that there was no point in feeling anxious and waiting for dawn, they went to enter the abandoned residence as it was the only path available.

“We should at least prepare some weapons!”

When he finished speaking Chai Gang seemed to be the very embodiment of a ‘arms dealer’, an axe, machete, iron rod and a hook…. Like performing conjuring tricks, he pulled it out one by one.

Su Mo didn’t care to ask him from where he was pulling out all of these things, but rather under everyone’s gaze, he unexpectedly chose to grab a short dagger.

After having equiped themselves with the weaponry, they all rushed over to the direction of the abandoned residence. They heard a faint sound as if someone was whispering and the closer that they were drawing to the building, the louder the noise became.

The strange thing is that when they arrived before the entrance, the voice stopped.

Chai Gang gulped, gathered his courage and pushed the gate open.

Both sides of the gate slowly opened with a creak….

The inside was quiet, as their eyes were greeted with the sight of a large font screen wall.^[2]A wall found either inside or outside of the traditional courtyard used to shield an entrance from spirits

The strange thing was, that there wasn’t traditionally auspicious patterns, nor landscape murals engraved on the screen wall, but rather, depicted in detail a half-man, half-beast —— definitely an ominous sign.

Besides the screen wall as a barrier, the layout inside the house was covered in as dark shroud, as if to ward off trespassers and, as mere pedestrians, they didn’t really have the confidence to hastily intrude upon this household.

However, since they had already come this far, on principle they decided to continue forward.

‘Open the door and meet your death,’ In horror drama’s that is definitely a common scene, but as the most experienced senior, Chai Gang had to steel his nerves and took the first step to enter.

“exhale…. It’s okay, let’s all go in!”

Hearing his words, everyone else, although feeling sorry for themselves, did not delay and nervously entered together.

When the last person had entered, the gates to the abandoned residence silently closed shut. Everyone had entered and their eyes came upon the grounds. —— A wilderness in the residence.

The six uneasy people avoided the screen wall as they walked around it. Behind it there was a small flower garden with an incredibly lifelike rockery.

The rockery looked perfectly normal without any irregularities. However, there was something strange about the flower garden that was encircled by a fence.

The types of flowers in the garden were numerous, however the only flowers that had bloomed were carnations in the very middle. —— The deep purple and bright reds of the petals, aluminated by the moonlight, appeared to give off an incredibly bewitching appearance.

Coming across this scenery, on the left side there is a gloomy looking grove, while on the right there is a wall with a small, iron gate.

The strangest part is, that in this gigantic abandoned residence, there was no main entrance.

“This is… the back yard?”

Chai Gang subconciously looked at Su Mo.

Su Mo didn’t comment, “It’s not important, let’s go in!”

After he spoke, without waiting for anyone’s response, Su Mo took a big step forward towards the small iron gate and pushed it open.

“Eh?!”

His arm being grabbed by someone, Su Mo turned his head to look. Only to hear Xiao Ya say angrily, “You are a newcomer. How can you be so careless!”

“Exactly, if we are to enter then I should enter first!”

Chai Gang who had assumed the responsibility, immediately bypassed Su Mo and Xiao Ya. Raising the torch, he walked forward and entered.

Seeing Chai Gang just charge in, Xiao Ya, who still wanted to say something, could only stomp her foot. After giving Su Mo a ferocious glare, she hurried to catch up with Chai Gang.

They found themselves in a winding corridor, a strange winding corridor. Not only was there no light nor windows, but the floor was uneven and full of bumps and holes.

Su Mo rubbed at his eyes and discovered that on the walls, going 1,5m in front of them were strange, carvings of patterns.

Nobody dared to go further into the darkness and in succession began to carefully study the lines of the patterns. Unfortunately, the patterns had rules, however what exactly those rules were they couldn’t figure out.

“Huh? That’s a strange amount of black marks!”

Lu Lan Lan who was the last to enter, suddenly pointed to the iron gate and spoke.

Everybody turned to look and discovered that unexpectedly, on the back of the iron gate there was a transparent square frame. On the square frame there were strange, thickly dotted stains all over.

“Eh….”

Mark walked a few steps backwards from the entrance, feeling embarrased, “I have trypophobia^[3]The fear of holes that are closely packed together, so I really can’t look at that.”

Nobody responded to him. Everyone, including Su Mo all drew closer to the black dots. Regrettably, the black dots and the patterns were the same. I seemed like they were rules, but they couldn’t tell what they were.

“I always feel like this looks familiar…” Xiao Ya frowned, “What in the world was it?”

Not only Xiao Ya, but Su Mo also thought it looked a little familiar.

“Good, good! Regardless of what it is, whatever has been inscribed on the door would surely not be important information. Everyone, let’s continue moving!”

Chai Gang seemed light-headed and couldn’t bear the urge to hasten everyone along.

Everyone no longer delayed and immediately continued walking further into the depths of the dark corridor….

~~~ * ~~~

TL SmolAries has something to say:

Hi, sorry everyone that I went silent for so long. Everything has been really hectic and I started University, so I will be quite a bit slower in updating, but please don’t dispare, I won’t be dropping it at all.

Anyway, keep fighting! And thank you for following this humble one’s work. bow